Essential Classical - Pt. 4: Romantic...sorta

This category started out simply enough, and then it got out of hand really quickly. So here's 16 pieces, subdivided into dances, wedding music, and then general, chill-out-with-your-waifu stuff.

I. The Dances

Feel free to gloss right over if this ain't yo thang.

1) Ponchielli - Dance of the Hours (excerpt, cause the whole thing is loooong)
2) Tchaikovsky - Waltz of the Flowers
Where you've seen it: If you haven't seen it performed seriously, it's usually in spoofs of synchronized dances.
3) Bizet - Habanera
4) Gardel - Por Una Cabeza
Where you've seen it: Scent of a Woman, Schindler's List, True Lies


II. Weddings

Strictly wedding stuff.

5) Clarke - Trumpet Voluntary
Now that's classy. I'm pretty sure the bridal party usually comes in to this one.
6) Wagner - Lohengrin Act III Prelude ("Bridal Chorus")
Wikipedia: despite this being popular as "here comes the bride", it's usually not used for Jewish, Lutheran, or Roman Catholic weddings. And in the opera, the marriage between Elsa and Lohengrin is an almost immediate failure. Take that, Western culture!
7) Mendelssohn - Wedding March
Frankly, this is borderline epic.


III. Chill Out with Your Waifu

8) Pachelbel - Canon in D
The "original one-hit wonder," sometimes used in weddings too. The chord progression is in every single song you have and will ever like. Here's proof. And oh yeah, remember this guy?

9) Schubert - Ave Maria
Damn right, that's Hitman. So I've heard this during weddings and a funeral. Although, come to think of it, the funeral was in a game. Crazy. And crazy good.

10) Bach - Air on the G String
Never mind the awkward name. You'd sometimes hear this one at wedding processions as well. But by far, the Klazz Brothers/Cuba Percussion version used for the film Collateral is my number one piece of music to chill out to.

11) Delibes - The Flower Duet
I can't remember, but I think this is the song playing when Homer Simpson sees "Flushing Meadows" and dreams about a field of toilets.

12) Jenkins - Palladio
Only because this was used in old De Beers commercials. A diamond cubic zirconia is forever.

13) Strauss - The Blue Danube
If this song didn't sound so blissful, it'd belong in the Epic section too.

Where you've seen this: 2001: A Space Odyssey (noticing a trend?)

14) Beethoven - Piano Sonata No. 8 II. Andante cantabile
Better known as the Pathetique Sonata, for whatever reason. Klazz Brothers and Cuba Percussion have a good, jazzy arrangement of this piece too.

15) Grieg - Morning
More fun to set this song as your alarm than Rage Against the Machine - Wake Up. The other "morningy" piece is from the William Tell Overture (see the 2nd half of the video).

16) Rachmaninoff - Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Variation XVIII
This will freaking sweep you off your feet, even if you're sitting down. Amirite?